Kenyan president orders government to repossess contested land on volatile
coast
Fri Aug 1, 2014 11:09am GMT
* Kenyatta cancels title deeds on huge tracts of land
* Says govt audit shows companies bought land unlawfully
* Says land grabbing helping fuel insecurity on coast
NAIROBI, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered the
government to repossess large areas of land in Lamu County, which has been
hit by recent attacks, saying land grabbing was helping fuel instability on
the north coast.
Kenyatta, speaking late on Thursday, said a government audit showed the
land, covering an area the size of the island of Mauritius, had been
acquired unlawfully by companies in 2011-2012.
Lamu County borders war-torn Somalia and about 100 people have been killed
in raids in the area since mid-June as attacks became more frequent.
Somali al Shabaab militants have claimed responsibility for many attacks,
saying they want Kenyan troops out of Somalia, but the government has blamed
local political networks instead.
Diplomats and security analysts say Islamists may have tapped into
grievances among the traditional coastal people who complain that they are
still viewed as squatters on ancestral land while Kenyans from other regions
have obtained deeds to own the land.
The president's announcement appeared aimed at addressing some of those
complaints, which analysts say could lead to far broader insurgency if not
tackled swiftly.
Kenyatta said the repossessed land, covering 500,000 acres and about 70
percent of all arable land in Lamu County, had been acquired by the
companies "under dubious and corrupt circumstances" between 2011 and 2012.
Twenty two companies bought the land just after a $5.5 billion project to
develop a port at Lamu was announced and property values in the area have
since surged due to the planned project.
"The level of impunity revealed by the audit is unprecedented, untenable and
unacceptable," Kenyatta said after meeting local Lamu leaders at State
House.
"This criminal conspiracy has ... also helped fuel the current insecurity
being experienced in the region, and frustrated our efforts in building
cohesion in the country," Kenyatta said.
Much of the land surrounds the proposed Lamu port, which is part of a bigger
$25.5 billion regional infrastructure project aiming to link landlocked east
African nations to the sea.
Attacks in the area have hit tourism, hurting Kenya's economy, and analysts
say the attacks near Lamu port will make it harder for regional governments
to raise financing for the infrastructure project.
The attacks have fanned ethnic tensions in Kenya. Many from Kenyatta's
Kikuyu community, who have traditionally lived upcountry, say their kinsmen
have been singled out in some of the attacks in the Lamu area.
Political allegiances in Kenya tend to follow ethnic lines and signs of
inter-ethnic tensions are closely scrutinized. A disputed poll in 2007
sparked weeks of ethnic bloodletting that left more than 1,200 people dead
and crippled the economy. (Reporting by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Edmund
Blair and Susan Fenton)